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Supremacist’s complaint investigated

BISMARCK — North Dakota is investigating a human rights complaint against the state’s attorney general filed by a white supremacist charged with terrorizing the small town he’s trying to take over.

In the document, Craig Cobb said Wayne Stenehjem discriminated against Cobb’s religion when Stenehjem told KFGO-AM on Oct. 31 “that white supremacist Craig Cobb and his supporters are ‘not the kind of people’ wanted in North Dakota.”

Cobb said he believes that was intended to discourage him from practicing his religion of racism in the state and continuing to live here.

The North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights received the complaint Monday.

Stenehjem’s office said Tuesday he hadn’t seen the document and would likely not comment.

Cobb is being held without bail in the Stanton jail and said Tuesday he hasn’t eaten in six days as part of a form of spiritual enlightenment that ends in death.

Cobb told The Associated Press he’d be willing to drop the complaint, sell his Leith house and leave the state if prosecutors drop charges that he terrorized residents with guns.

Cobb maintains he was patrolling the town because of violence and harassment directed at him.

“I’ll be so glad to get out of the state. And I’ll never come back to North Dakota,” he said, adding that he would leave the country.

Cobb, 62, who is wanted in Canada on a hate crime charge, moved to Leith about 1 1/2 years ago, bought land and a house, and encouraged others with similar views to join him and turn the tiny town into an Aryan enclave.

Regarding the possibility of a plea bargain, prosecutor Todd Schwarz said Cobb will be treated as any other defendant.